Johal Dairies Loses Appeal Against J.N.Dairies in "Milk War" Court Case That Exposed Underhanded Tactics in UK Dairy Industry

LONDON, April 12, 2010 - The Judgment, concluding an unusual court case, has been passed by
London's Court of Appeal. Leave to Appeal was given due to the seriousness of
accusations against the original trial Judge. The Wolverhampton and Leicester
based dairy company Johal Dairies, run by brothers Surbjit (Jitty) and Gurnek
Johal, now face a significant sum of legal costs and damages after losing to
its trade rival, J.N.Dairies, also based in Wolverhampton.

The Court of Appeal reviewing the case of J.N.Dairies v Johal Dairies
(originally heard during an 8-day High Court trial in March 2009), has
unanimously found in favour of J.N.Dairies. They rejected Johal's Appeal and
request for a re-trial. The Appeal was heard in London on 16th and 17th March
2010 in front of Lord Justices Mummery, Stanley Burnton and Sullivan. They
approved the Judge's reasoning as "long and careful" without "any lack of
objectivity on his part." They found that he addressed points "entirely
adequately" and gave "substantial reasons." Johals' complaints were said to
be without "substance" and "no complaint can justifiably be made" against the
Judge. See full Judgement handed down at London's Royal Courts of Justice
(Court of Appeal) at 10:45am on 31st March 2010.

The original Judgment of June 2009 stands. This ruled that Johal Dairies
had acted unlawfully by paying an illegal immigrant GBP40,000 to steal
confidential invoices from J.N.Dairies which Johal then used in price
negotiations to approach J.N.Dairies' customers. The theft of the invoices
was found to be part of a "prearranged plan" with Johal Dairies director
Surbjit (Jitty) Johal.

In speaking about the Court of Appeal decision, the Directors of
J.N.Dairies said, "We are delighted to have won in the Court of Appeal and
that justice has prevailed again. Johal Dairies did not compete fairly and
resorted to unlawful activity in an attempt to sabotage our hard-earned
business. We would like to thank our suppliers, customers, staff, friends,
the dairy industry and local community for their support over the last 18
months and we look forward to the next decade in business; providing value,
quality and service."

    Notes:

    - J.N.Dairies was founded and currently run by Mr Jaspal Singh Nijjar
      and family of Wolverhampton. - Johal Dairies was founded by Mr Jarnail
      Johal and is now generally managed by his two sons, Mr Surbjit (Jitty)
      and Mr Gurnek Johal. - Mr Gurbir Singh (the second defendant) who stole
      the confidential information on behalf of Johal, was paid by Johal to
      flee to India prior to the March 2009 High Court trial, so was not
      present, neither represented. Mr Gurbir Singh, who is from "Tole Nangal"
      village in India's state of Punjab, was also known as "Gurinder Bir
      Singh" and by the nickname "Bhalwaan" - a player of the Indian sport
      Kabaddi, a mixture of rugby and wrestling.

    J.N.Dairies v Johal Dairies: Appeal Hearing Supporting Information

    - After losing an 8-day High Court trial in 2009, Johal Dairies have lost
      their appeal to the Court of Appeal.

    - Johal primarily got permission to Appeal because of the serious
      allegation that "the Judge closed his mind" to their case. Johal have
      failed to make that allegation good.

    - During the Appeal hearing, Lord Justice Mummery emphasised the
      seriousness of the allegations saying he had never seen this reason
      in 14 years of sitting as a Court of Appeal Judge. "Why would a Judge
      close his mind?" he questioned. "Why would he favour another party? Why
      wouldn't he accept evidence from Johal? It doesn't make sense."

    - High Court Judge David Cooke's Judgement was described as "long and
      careful" without "any lack of objectivity on his part", he addressed
      points "entirely adequately" and gave "substantial reasons". Lord
      Justice Stanley Burnton said "adequate reasons have been given for the
      Judge's factual findings, and his decisions on the legal issues are
      unchallenged. Johal Dairies has not come close to satisfying the" heavy
      onus which is on a party seeking to show that a Judgment is unfair when
      there is no relationship of the other party with a Judge and no
      misconduct by the Judge during the trial.

    - Throughout the litigation Johal had insisted that J.N.Dairies'
      witnesses, many of whom were independent, were all lying. The Court
      found J.N.Dairies' evidence to be "transparently honest". In contrast,
      the evidence on behalf of Johal was found to be "highly unconvincing"
      and "implausible."

    - J.N.Dairies (Claimant/Respondent) was represented by Vernon Flynn QC
      and Damien Walker (instructed by Burges Salmon LLP). Johal Dairies
      (Defendant/Appellant) was represented by Tim Lord QC and Richard
      Blakely (instructed by Druces LLP).

J.N.Dairies v Johal Dairies: Original High Court Trial Supporting
Information

    - On Friday 12 June 2009, at 10:30am, J.N.Dairies had received the High
      Court Judgment in its favour and won the monumental court case battle
      against its rival Johal Dairies. The findings in that Judgment have now
      been upheld by the Court of Appeal.

    - 20 years of bitter rivalry had culminated in the High Court judgement
      by His Honour Judge David Cooke in favour of J.N.Dairies, one of the
      leaders in chilled dairy distribution in the UK, in a lawsuit against
      its local competitor Johal Dairies and illegal immigrant Mr Gurbir
      Singh.

    - The extraordinary High Court trial lasting eight days at Birmingham's
      Civil Justice Centre between 10 and 19 March 2009, saw Wolverhampton
      and Leicester based Johal Dairies, found to have acted unlawfully by
      paying an illegal immigrant, Mr Gurbir Singh, GBP40,000 to steal
      information from rival supplier J.N.Dairies that contained the volumes,
      addresses and prices that it was supplying its customers, which it then
      used in price negotiations to unlawfully win J.N.Dairies' business. Mr
      Gurbir Singh was paid by Johal to flee to India prior to the trial, so
      was not present, neither represented.

    - Prior to the case coming to court for trial, several of the hundreds of
      independent convenience stores and small supermarkets across the trading
      areas that are served by both companies, were approached by Johal
      Dairies, making use of the confidential information stolen on their
      behalf from J.N.Dairies to win customers. Comments were made such as,
      "J.N.Dairies would lose the court case and this would finish them off."
      As an attempt to win business, a Johal Dairies director Gurnek Johal,
      for example, had said to a customer, "J.N.Dairies would be wiped out",
      while another director Surbjit Johal (known as "Jitty"), was found to
      have been saying, "Singh finished, Singh finished, come to us"
      (referring to Jaspal Singh Nijjar, a director of J.N.Dairies).

    - At the same time further damning evidence came to light over tactics
      employed by Johal Dairies to entice customers to its business, and
      which exposed the business to the wrath of farmers. J.N.Dairies
      customers testified that they had been offered cheap milk by Johal
      Dairies with one customer offered four weeks milk supply free while
      another was offered free milk for three months. Such practice is
      strongly condemned by the National Farmers Union as well as Farmers For
      Action.

    - In a damning judgment, His Honour Judge David Cooke comprehensively
      rejected Johal Dairies' evidence that was principally given by
      brothers Surbjit (Jitty) and Gurnek Johal, declaring it "highly
      unconvincing" and "implausible" and that Gurbir Singh stole the
      invoices as part of a "prearranged plan" organised by Surbjit Johal and
      was paid a minimum of GBP40,000 for doing so.

    - In a statement after the judgment was laid down, Jaspal Singh Nijjar,
      Director and Founder of J.N.Dairies had said: "We are delighted to have
      won this case. We do not have a problem with fair competition, and
      indeed have been successfully competing with Johal Dairies and other
      companies for a number of years, but unlawful activity to attack our
      business will not be tolerated by J.N.Dairies, nor will the law allow
      anyone to get away with it. I would like to thank those customers,
      non customers and independent witnesses who were willing to testify in
      court about these unacceptable practices, and for supporting us through
      this difficult episode."

Arshad Khan, General Manager of J.N.Dairies, said: "We can compete all
day long with equal arms, but if a competitor is going to arrange for the
theft of our vital business data, acquires it, and uses it against us then no
longer can this be called fair competition. This happened, and in order for
us to protect the business from unlawful damage, we were compelled to take
Johal Dairies to court."

Manrupe Singh Nijjar of J.N.Dairies, and the son of Jaspal Nijjar, added:
"We fought the case to get at the truth and to seek justice. The truth has
come out. We have our justice. We now look forward to putting this case
behind us, and to developing our business by implementing our strategies for
continuous and future expansion. We will continue to provide our existing and
new customers with an excellent service, premium quality, and value for money
branded products in the marketplace that will satisfy everyone in the supply
chain from the hardworking dairy farmers, the bakers, retailers and shop
keepers to the consumers themselves."

    - In his summing-up His Honour Judge David Cooke had declared that:

    - The second defendant, Gurbir Singh, stole "all the invoices that
      J.N.Dairies had put out for all of its customers on all of its rounds",
      the theft of which was a "prearranged plan" with Surbjit (Jitty) Johal
      and arrangements "had been made in the course of the previous week
      during the telephone calls that were shown to have been made from the
      telephones of Mr Surbjit Johal and Mr Gurnek Johal". - The second
      defendant then went to the Johal Dairies premises and handed the
      invoices to Surbjit (Jitty) Johal.

   -  The second defendant was paid by Johal Dairies for his part in this
      scheme, "in particular by payment of GBP40,000 and his cost of travel
      to India. He may well have received or been promised additional
      benefits". - Johal Dairies then made use of the stolen invoices for
      "the purpose of approaching or negotiating with various customers of
      J.N.Dairies".

    Further information and contact details for both parties:

    J.N.Dairies' website: www.JNDairies.com

    Johal Dairies' website: www.JohalDairies.co.uk